Lena: I wrote a novel in fourth grade. Everyone has one of these. I recently found it. It was about a boy who lived in the ruins in India because I'd heard once there were some ruins in India, I did not do good research, and has to save his friend from a snake bite. I remember I was in fourth grade and thought people didn't like me. For that period of time, I was in the ruins with this kid who was lonely but much more successfully adventurous than I was. It gave me that sense of connection and purpose. Writing's done that for me ever since. It seems like this is how it is for you. It's also a way to frame your experience and understand what you've been through and also try to reach a hand out to other people and ask, do you know what this feels like too? For me, being read and having someone understand or exchanging a book with someone that we both love, reading someone else, that's the way that I know how to feel understood.